Vascular Plants of the Gila Wilderness

Presented in Association with theWestern New Mexico University Department
of Natural Sciences

Verbascum thapsus Linnaeus (Mullein, Moth Mullein)

Family: Scrophulariaceae

Status: Exotic

Synonyms:
None

Verbascum thapsus is a tall unmistakeable plant. The leaves are mostly basal, and can reach very large size. They are woolly. The inflorescence is a tall crowded spike of yellow flowers. The stamen filaments are very hairy and the top of the style is flattened. Verbascum thapsus is a lower to middle elevation plant that grows on dry soil and on roadsides. The branching of the multicellular leaf cilia is quite interesting. The uppermost portion is stellate. Below the top, where there are cell junctions, there can be either another area of stellate branching or simple branching. So there are often areas of stellate branching stacked upon each other on the same main cilial stalk. The flowers mature into two-chambered stellate-pubescent capsules partially enclosed by leafy bracts. The capsules initially are green and then turn brown. After the capsules turn brown, they split open from the pointed apex toward the base revealing hundreds of minute, rugose brown seeds.
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